During sports or other recreational activities, it is common for persons to suffer muscular trauma, i.e. mechanical stress on muscle protein tissue, to both skeletal muscle and surrounding fascia. Such trauma can cause a to disruption of skeletal muscle plasticity and can also impede the flow of nutrients, metabolites and blood through a muscle. In instances where fascia does not heal correctly, it can form ‘fibrotic adhesions’, also known as ‘trigger points’, which are regions where different layers of fascia adhere together, causing tissue occlusion. Tissue occlusion can contribute towards a wide range of musculoskeletal issues, including pain, unnecessary tone, restriction of blood flow, reduced tissue elasticity and decreased joint movement.
In the past, these issues have primarily been treated by remedial massage therapists practising certain techniques, such as ‘trigger point release’ (also known as ‘myofacial release’) or acupressure manual therapy. The physiological principle of such techniques is to manually affect skeletal tissue and receptors by releasing fibrotic adhesions and excessive tone within the effected tissue.
As an alternative to engaging a skilled practitioner to treat these problems, it has become increasingly popular for affected persons to use a ‘self-myofacial release’ (SMR) product. In recent years, SMR and trigger point release products have been widely accepted as a technique to restore tissue health amongst professional, amateur and recreational athletes, and persons in rehabilitation. A number of different SMR devices exist, the most popular being variants of a ‘foam roller’, which comprise a rigid tube surrounded by a layer of foam which typically forms a grid of protrusions. The roller is ‘rolled’ along a portion of a user's body whilst a force is exerted on the roller perpendicular to the direction of roll. The foam protrusions compress the portion of the body which the device is rolled along, thereby improving myofacial release and blood flow in that portion.
Whilst these conventional foam roller devices may provide some therapeutic assistance, they often lack effectiveness and do not optimise soft tissue separation and/or improve blood flow to adhered and occluded areas. Also, many known SMR foam roller devices are not durable as the foam layer becomes permanently compressed over time, rendering the device useless.
Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a solution that avoids or ameliorates any of the disadvantages present in the prior art, or which provides another alternative to the prior art approaches.